The gap in the negotiations between the College Employer Council (CEC) and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), which represents faculty at 24 colleges, appears to be wide enough for the union to call for a strike vote.
Union members can vote between noon Tuesday, Oct. 15, and 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17.
The core of the dispute revolves around the demands for an updated Standard Workload Formula (SWF), which calculates the workload for full-time faculty.
A strike could lead to delayed classes, altered academic schedules, and general uncertainty across Ontario’s public colleges.
Following the last strike in 2017, the Ministry of Advanced Education provided students with a full tuition refund if they decided to not continue with a condensed semester. Some colleges decided to keep the ancillary or the health insurance fee.
The students also were eligible to receive up to $500 for unexpected costs they incurred because of the labour dispute, such as childcare fees, rebooked train or bus tickets, or rent.
The SWF has not been revised in about 40 years, and the faculty union argues it no longer is relevant to modern educational environments, such as multi-modal teaching, compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into classrooms. These additional responsibilities, coupled with the mental health crisis worsened by COVID-19, have increased the workload of faculty, the union claims.
Milos Vasic, president of Humber’s faculty union, Local 562, said the union wants the colleges to acknowledge that it takes more work to teach an online asynchronous class than it does an in-person class.
A significant gap in the current system is that the SWF applies only to full-time faculty, leaving almost 50 per cent of the faculty, who are non-full-time or partial-load (contract) employees, without similar protections.
An increased reliance on part-time faculty has raised job security concerns.
The contract faculty does not have the same protections or benefits as full-time faculty. Proposals also address access to holidays, vacation time, and compensation, and their ability to participate in union activities.
Program coordinators are calling for an end to the outsourcing of their responsibilities. The union is also advocating for shared governance in decision-making processes in coursework. Counsellors and librarians have reported over-work hours which are compensated variably.
‘’I think the broader Humber community does need to know the stresses that the counsellors and ALS consultants are under. It is, it is massive,’ Vasic said.
The CEC has expressed concerns about the financial implications of the union’s demands.
The estimated cost of the non-monetary proposal is $1 billion, according to CEC, while claiming the union has stated that “costing is not our responsibility.”
The CEC on its website stated that the tabled demands jeopardize the Colleges’ ability to be financially responsible and students’ access to the education they deserve.
‘’Changes to SWF factors that would significantly reduce the number of courses and students a professor would be able to teach,” it said.
The CEC also said the SWF report’s recommendations “are based on an incomplete analysis of the data collected. The findings from all the research and all the survey feedback must be considered if we are to effectively address academic workload issues in the college system.”
CEC has acknowledged areas in SWF should be addressed but effective bargaining needs time.
‘’We do not believe a strike vote or mandate is required to continue bargaining. We urge the CAAT-A bargaining team to re-focus on bargaining instead of escalating the process and unfairly alarming students, faculty, and the community,” the CEC said in an email to Humber Et Cetera.
The CEC stated that in case of a strike, it would collaborate with the colleges to keep students and community members informed. In the past, colleges were able to adjust to ensure that students could complete their courses despite disruptions.
The CEC said on Sept. 19 that there were 14 days of bargaining completed with 12 more bargaining days scheduled. If no resolution is found, faculty members could strike or the CEC could lock out faculty, impacting the fall semester.
